Apps That Will Help You Keep Your New Year's Resolutions

Life-Changing Apps That Will Help You Keep Your New Year's Resolutions

With the dust of the holidays finally settled, it's time to jump back into reality and kick off the new year with a bang. And that means getting serious about some of your New Year's resolutions. Whether it's losing weight, quitting smoking, becoming more organized, getting more sleep, improving your mental health, or learning something new, there are few things more admirable that a man who's actively trying to better himself.

And because it's 2016, you don't have to face any of these challenges entirely on your own. The great minds of the app development world have heard your problems and are here to help you reach your goals. From achieving your fitness resolutions to improving your productivity, think of these apps as tiny personal assistants. You still have to do the work, but they are there to keep you on task and take care of the administrative busy work.

Whether you declared them drunkenly at midnight on New Year's eve, wrote them down meticulously after a revelation while home for the holidays or are gearing up for another year of trying to crack a particularly tough nut, make this the year that you finally grab hold of your resolutions and pin them down.

These (truly) life-changing apps, as suggested by Redditors with firsthand experience and sorted according to resolution, are the tools you should harness to become a better man in 2016:

"You can use it to fix your parents computer problems from 200 miles away, install and patch a new steam game at home from your cubicle, or just use it to click 'yes I am still watching' on [N]etflix without having to get up off the couch." - rg44_at_the_office

Avocado: A shared list application. Cost: [FREE[

"We use it primarily for Grocery lists, but also for trip planning, packing lists, or anything else requiring us to remember something that needs to be done or purchased." - fireballmat

Google Calendar: It's an obvious one, but using it effectively can work wonders. Cost: [FREE]

"My memory is shit...the ability to even do simple [stuff] like [scheduling] day-to-day stuff that I don't normally remember, like paying bills on [F]riday, [or] I need to do X, Y, and Z (be it pay bills, change mailing addresses, get a bike lock, whatever. boring errand that I forget)" and then I put it in my calendar, and then it goddamn happens, [is] amazing." - GreatMadWombat

Wunderlist: Keep lists of things you want to remember and sync them across devices. Cost: [FREE]

"[A]llows for easy tracking, maintaining and syncing stuff. I have a list of things I need, ideas for studies that i get while reading articles (I'm a researcher), books and movies I hear about that seem interesting, and places I find that I want to visit in the future." - TomHardyAsBronson

Vivino: Never buy a crappy bottle of wine again. Cost: [FREE]

"[I]t's like Shazam for wine. You take a pic of the label and find out the price, where it's sold, what other users have to say, etc." - JosephND

Stop Being Late For Things

Getty Images

Whether your problem is that you can't wake up in the morning, or that the public transit in your city in hopelessly unreliable, these apps can make arriving at places on time a cinch.

Sleep Cycle: An app that tracks your sleep and wakes you up in the lightest part of your slumber. It also creates graphs out of your sleep data that you can use to monitor your sleep patterns. Cost: [$1.39]

One Bus Away: An app that uses GPS and the bus schedule to determine exactly what time your bus will arrive at its stop. Cost: [FREE]

"At the park and ride, I can sit in my truck and listen to the radio until the bus is 4 min out and then it is a short walk to the stop. Stay warm and dry." - EricT59

I Can’t Wake Up!: An alarm that makes you do a few quick puzzles and exercises in order to shut it off. Cost: [FREE]

Improve Mental Health And Well Being

MentalMoodJournal: An app that prompts you to rate your mood on a scale of 1 to 10 several times a day. You can also add comments to your rating and look at fluctuations in your mood over the course of a day, week or month. Cost: [$1.34]

"When I feel down [and] I'm positive it's the worst thing ever and will never ever change...this helps/forces me to keep some sense of perspective on it. It's a little thing but really helps keep me sane sometimes." - mcathen

"I have spent literally countless hours at work listening to amazing, epic stories. Instead of remembering the 4 straight hours I spent cold and alone in my laboratory prepping plates, all I remember is the heart-racing climax of a Stephen King story." - delight_petrichor

Migraine Buddy: A migraine-tracking app designed by neurologists and data scientists. Cost: [FREE]

"Helps me keep track of 'em in case I need to tell my doctor, or in case I just want to see what causes them and helps them most of the time. Amazing that it's free as well." - MaxAreMe

Plant Nanny: A virtual plant that reminds you to drink water regularly. Cost: [FREE]

"[C]ute app that measures how much water you should be drinking and gives you a plant to water each time you drink a glass of water." - Angie-P

Headspace: An app that takes you through guided meditation exercises. Cost: [FREE to download] Year Subscription [$70.00]

"It's an awesome app that helps you get into the routine of guided mindfulness meditation. Btw, meditation is a scientifically proven way to improve a lot of things about your life." - underspikey

Quit Smoking

Stocksy

The resolution to quit smoking can be a stubborn beast that comes back to haunt you year after year. An app can help you keep you on track and motivate you by tracking your progress.

QuitNow Pro: A quit smoking app that motivates your by letting you "unlock" health improvements and achievements as you abstain and connects you with other smokers trying to quit. Cost [Free] Pro Version [$4.95]

"Seeing how many days it's been since I quit smoking, how much money I have saved, how many days I've regained on my life, etc has really helped me keep on track. As of now I'm 215 days cigarette (and vape!) free." - RadicalSally

Lose Weight

Getty Images

Losing weight is always a big one on people's resolution lists after the holidays, but it also seems to be one that falls off people's lists pretty quickly too. These apps can make it easier and more fun to stick to your weight loss goals:

MyFitnessPal: An app that helps you track the amount and type of calories in the food you eat. Cost: [FREE]

"I don't feel a simple upvote is enough for me to really express how much of a positive impact this has had.

If anyone is trying to lose weight, get this app and use it (in conjunction with exercise). I'm down 5kg over about 6 weeks. But I'm also now able to moderate my eating, and really understand what I'm eating, so that in the future I can maintain my weight, and not just have some quick weight loss only to put it back on again (I hope!)." - TurtleInATracksuit

"Just started using this. I love that it gives me little good or bad messages when I enter my food.

Today for lunch it told me I was eating something high in Vitamin C, yay! But last night it had a somewhat condescending message about the high level of saturated fats in sunflower seeds that I was gorging on..." - moochiemonkey

Zombies, Run!: An app that turns your run into a zombie apocalypse story. Complete missions and collect supplies to build up your base. When you hear zombies chasing you, run faster! Cost: [FREE}

"It keeps me distracted enough to suddenly realize I don't hate running, I just hate running with myself. I can listen to a good story and my own music and just zone out for 35 minutes." - ColinKodiak

"No more annoying 30 min spent trying to split a check or getting shotty excuses as to why someone can't pay you back because they only have their card or not the right change in cash." - 0hwhataworld

Mint: Helps you record and track all of your financial transactions and create budgets and savings goals. Cost: [FREE]

"It's helped me keep track of my finances and consolidate everything in one place. It records every transaction on my bank account, multiple credit cards, loans, investment accounts, which I would normally only see by logging into 8-9 separate websites (which all have different password requirements and all log you out after 10 minutes of not looking at them.)" - rg44_at_the_office

Get More Sleep

Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Getting a solid night of sleep is one of the cornerstones of overall health. With the amount of time most people spend staring at devices, it can be hard to turn off our brains and relax at night. These apps can help you diminish effects on your sleep from devices and help you to wake up feeling better.

Twilight and F.lux: Twilight (for mobile) and F.lux (for computer) are apps that adjust your screen's "color temperature" depending on the time of day to reduce strain on your eyes and prevent sleep pattern disruption. Cost: [FREE]

Sleep Cycle: An app that tracks your sleep and wakes you up in the lightest part of your slumber. It also creates graphs out of your sleep data that you can use to monitor your sleep patterns. Cost: [$1.39]

Be More Productive

Clockwork Tomato: Breaks your work period down into "25-minute slices separated by short breaks." Cost: [FREE]

"I find I can study for a much longer time than normal and it logs your work time!" - Fishflapper

Forest: An app that lets you plant virtual trees that either flourish or die depending on whether or not you stay on task. Cost: [FREE]

"Whenever you want to focus, you set a desired time and "plant" your tree. If you ever leave the app, your sapling withers and dies. Not wanting to kill a tree is a surprising motivater. It also tracks your daily "forest" of trees so you can see how long you've stayed focused." - dialgadude

Learn Something New

Getty Images

A great resolution can be to learn something new. Whether you just wish to be more knowledgeable in a certain topic or need to cram a new skill or language quickly for work or travel, these apps can help:

Duolingo: An addictive language-learning app that uses games, exercises and rewards to help keep you motivated. Cost: [FREE]

"About a month ago I found my old French notebook from high school and was SUPER bummed that I no longer knew basically any of it. I downloaded Duolingo and have been practicing 15+ minutes a day for the last 30ish days—it's a lot of fun, it makes me feel like I'm learning an interesting skill, and it's a great, productive way to kill downtime." - pistachiopaul

Memrise: An app for learning languages and other topics like history, science and math. Cost: [FREE]

Improve Your Relationship

750words: A mobile-friendly website that lets you write 750-word long journal entries that your partner can access. Cost: [FREE]

"My wife and I write 750 words daily in our journals. It allows us to see what sort of mood we are each in and support each other as necessary. If there is something that needs to be communicated but we don't feel comfortable communicating that in person, we can write it in our journals. It has literally saved our marriage." - fireballmat

Develop Better Habits

Getty Images

This last app is sort of an umbrella app you can use to keep all your new app-fueled resolutions on track.

7 Weeks: An app that helps you develop a new habit or break a bad one, using the theory that if you do anything for seven weeks straight, it becomes a habit. You can manage multiple habits and look at your progress over a month. Cost: [FREE[